Promotion Best Practices: How to get your product in front of thousands of people
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Promotion Best Practices: How to get your product in front of thousands of people
Promotion Best Practices

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Generate awareness

Communities cheat sheet
Use this page to ideate on what communities you can share your product with.
Sharing your journey as you build your product is the best way to build a following before you launch (see Build in Public). But if you’re simply planning your promotion strategy, this exercise will help identify where your audience is gathering organically today.

Generating awareness

Where can I find customers?
Before you get your first user, you need to make them aware of your solution. The best way to do this is to first find the communities and ‘watering holes’ where your audience is already gathering.
Communities - online or in-person group that you are active in today
Watering holes - places your audience gathers that you are not actively participating

Each of your audience segments may gather in different places, and that’s okay! Use the table below to keep track of each community / watering hole you want to tap into, the channel where they can be found (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit), and what audience segments you’ll reach.
Lastly, add in the key points to land for each segment. This will be a flavor of the “Pain Points” and “Benefits” you noted on the last page. Although the audience may remain the same, the context in which you’re delivering your message is changing. Be sure to adapt your message to the community you’re posting.

Add value before pitching your product

How you grow awareness is just as important as where you grow
Before you start plugging your product it’s important to first add value to your audience. Doing so will give you and your product more credibility at launch, and failing to do this puts you at risk of alienating your audience or in some channels, being suspended from the group.
⭐ Tip: If you’re promoting a Pack, the best way to provide value while generating awareness is to build a published doc that uses your Pack, then offer it to your audience. Your audience will be more willing to try your Pack, and they may even share it with others!

Build in Public

Another great way to generate awareness of your product even before you launch is building in public. Building in public means sharing your process of building a product / company / etc. with the world. The act is very transparent, offering a behind the scenes look of how the sausage is made. In exchange for your transparency, you’re more likely to:
Create a sticky brand prior to launch
Gain feedback and validating product-market fit
Get help when you need it - and even when you don’t

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Clear the table
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Communities and Watering Holes
2
Type
Name
Channel
Category
Audience
Key Points to Land
Activate
Community
Founders First Fans
Facebook
Social Media
Audience #2
TKTK
On Deck Founders
Slack
Slack Communities
Audience #3
TKTK
“/reddit thread”
Reddit
Online Communities
Audience #1
TKTK
Watering hole
Old newsletter
​
Email
Audience #3
Audience #2
​
My friend Ana
​
Influencers
Audience #1
​
Trends VC Slack
​
Slack Communities
Audience #1
​
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⭐ Tip: Check out the
Communities cheat sheet
⁠
for a list of communities and platforms for inspiration.

Next, you’ll complete the rest of your promotion strategy and narrow which channels to activate.

➡️ What’s next:
Prepare your channel strategy
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